Home Depot, one of the largest home improvement retailers in the US, has agreed to pay $72.5 million to end a long-running class action lawsuit alleging that the retailer underpaid workers in California. The preliminary settlement was filed last Thursday in a San Francisco federal court.
Why Was Home Depot Sued?
In March 2016, plaintiff John Utne filed suit against Home Depot seeking recovery of unpaid wages and derivative penalties on behalf of himself and other Home Depot store employees in California. Utne alleged, among other things, that Home Depot failed to pay hourly and overtime wages, failed to provide accurate written wage statements and failed to timely pay all wages upon termination.
Settlement
While Home Depot denied wrongdoing, it settled to avoid the burden, cost, and uncertainty of litigation. The settlement covers more than 272,000 employees employed by Home Depot in California since March 8, 2012. After taking out legal fees and costs, half of the settlement is set to go to hourly employees who worked closing shifts and were required to wait off the clock after stores were locked. Another 41% will go to employees who were not paid for the time needed to collect and put on aprons, and 9% to employees who lost pay because Home Depot rounded their clock-in and clock-out times to the nearest quarter hour.
For more information on wage and hour claims in California, please contact us at info@mnklawyers.com.
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